Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) gained 1.7% on a flat-to-down day for the markets as a number of analyst upgrades trumped up AAPL shares.

Topeka Capital Markets’ Brian White, in a move seemingly predicated to nip a Price Is Right $1 upgrade in the bud, set a $1,001 price target on Apple for the next 12 months, becoming the first Wall Street analyst to set a four-digit target. The attention-grabbing number would represent a more than 60% gain on current prices, and would put Apple’s market cap at around $1 trillion — about 6% of U.S. GDP. Not surprisingly, White gushes about Apple’s product line and growing influence across the world.

Piper Jaffray also toyed with the $1,000 mark, but thought the target was more realistic for 2014. So, for the next 12 months, the firm raised its expectations from $718 to a still immodest $910 per share. Completely outdone was JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM), which raised its target to a mere $715 per share.

Also trying to hitch a ride on the Apple train Tuesday was Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN), a genomics company that recently rejected a bid from Swiss pharma giant Roche (PINK:RHHBY) for $51 per share — a 15% increase on an original rejected bid made in January. The company told shareholders that “Illumina is like the Apple of the genomics business” in a recent letter — and that was the case at least Tuesday, with ILMN also posting 1%-plus gains.

Despite a good March for vehicle sales in the U.S., automakers were having a rough go of things Tuesday. General Motors (NYSE:GM) was down 4.6% after it reported a 12% year-over-year increase in March sales, well shy of analyst expectations for a 19% leap. Meanwhile, Ford (NYSE:F) traded flat amid a slight miss of 5% growth in sales. Most of the other major carmakers were trading flat to slightly down as well.